408 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



as easily be shot as a familiar bullock or horse ; the 

 former is always on the qui vive, and until he is prostrate 

 on the ground, and the white stripe along his belly 

 is conspicuous, look out, for if he has a kick in him 

 and can do mischief he will. 



The yellow lion will give up life in a respectable 

 way, not as a coward, but as one resigned to circum- 

 stances. The black-maned will fight on to the bitter 

 end, even although every effort it makes causes its heart's 

 blood to flow upon the velt, and hastens dissolution. 



The one, in fact, is the hero who does his best in 

 the fight and succumbs to the odds ; the other is the 

 Malay who runs amuck and buries his creese in what- 

 ever approaches him while he possesses a hand to move. 



But the maneless lion, more like, with the exception 

 of the size of his head, a panther than the others I have 

 spoken of, possesses all the stealth and cunning of the 

 animal he resembles, his habits are possibly more 

 nocturnal, and he is seldom heard to howl. Man he will 

 attack if wounded or coerced, but not under other 

 circumstances ; his activity is immense, and his power 

 commensurate with it. Bushmen say that he will 

 lodge in the lower branches of a tree ; of this I have 

 not had evidence, but these people are keen observers of 

 the animal kingdom, and seldom tell untruths upon the 

 subject. 



If the Guzerat or maneless lion of India is a distinct 

 species, then its representative in Africa is the same. 

 Your stay-at-home naturalists oppose everything they 

 do not know; but if to them we had to trust for 

 information, we should be as ignorant at the present 

 day as we were a thousand years ago. 



The Kaffirs and their kindred tribes, who are such 



